Leviticus 25:1-17
The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6 The Sabbath of the land [Sabbath produce of the land] shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, 7 and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food.
The Year of Jubilee
8 “You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. 10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field.
13 “In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. 14 And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. 15 You shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. 16 If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. 17 You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.
Maeve Binchy Snell was an Irish novelist, known for her take on human nature and life in Ireland. Her descriptive characters, interest in human nature, and her clever endings caused her books to out sell Oscar Wilde, James Joyce and W. B. Yeats.
One of her stories was a far flung family who had once owned a grand home with a rare and unique set of sixteen matching dining room chairs. The relative who appreciates the chairs calls together the family after many years and would like to reunite the family and pay market prices for the chairs. The relative collects all sixteen of the chairs spit to the family, chair by chair. Some are delighted to see the long lost family, some are grateful for the boon of knowing a good price without the guilt of selling a family heirloom. The relative makes a great pitch for future reunions, but the cynical relative seeing the market value of the complete set is correct. No reunions follow.
Jubilee is quite different and is a unique call of the LORD. The rapture declares dust recollects and bodies reform, rise up, proclaiming His Glory as faith departs the earth. Another attempt of God to call to souls, for the faith as He longs to hold the people of His creation, those dear to Him.
Jubilee has a lot of this romance and the love story. The country of Israel was a gift to the sons of Jacob. Children are often apt to wander off, marry, find new careers. Jubilee calls people back to their land - its theirs. Jubilee is also unique because of the Kosher Laws. Uniquely in Israel, we see longevity, we see King David living well into or past his fifties. This is something people will explain to the their children is a once in a life time event. Not just an opportunity for economics, although this makes economics rather a challenge, this is a calling home. An event to celebrate God has provided for His people. A time to reconnect. Eat the produce of the field. It's Jubilee.
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